Cellular wheel sluices are usually employed for dosing goods to be conveyed or for introducing and discharging them into or out of bulk processes. The cellular wheel sluices can be installed e. g. in recycling plants, silos, bunkers or hoppers, mixers, driers, mills or in conveyor lines and are mainly used for the separation from machines or processes with different pressure ranges and for volumetric dosing.
In such methods, the goods to be conveyed are transported in a housing by rotor blades of the rotating cellular wheel, the rotor blades forming rotor cells in the process by which the goods to be conveyed are moved further. The cellular wheel is manufactured to mate the housing such that the exacting tolerances between the cellular wheel and the housing and/or sealings prevent pressure compensation or a passage between the inlet and outlet openings of the sluice. While rotating, each rotor cell of the cellular wheel receives the goods to be conveyed at the inlet opening and discharges it again at the outlet opening. The discharge is here essentially determined by the volume of the cells and the speed of the rotating cellular wheel.
For sealing the rotating cellular wheel from the housing, sealing lips at the rotor blades and/or at least one sealing surface at the housing of a sealing material, such as ethylene-propylene-diene rubber, polyvinyl chloride, polytetrafluoroethylene, polyester urethane rubber, silicone, fluorosilicone, are usually employed. These sealing materials have different Shore hardnesses and can comprise an elastomer plastic and/or thermoplastic. Sealing lips can be designed with a textile insert and/or a coating. By the flexibility of the sealing materials, sealing towards the housing can be ensured during the rotation of the cellular wheel, in particular to compensate any unevenness of the sealing lips and/or the sealing surface. Thus, a passage of the goods to be conveyed or a gas in the direction of flow or counterflow is prevented.
Here, one disadvantage is that by the friction of the sealing lips with the sealing surfaces, abraded particles can form which contaminate the goods to be conveyed, thus impairing the quality of the further processed goods to be conveyed.